176 HISTORICAL NOTES ON 



personages, and that the tree was then already considered as an 

 emblem of sorrow and death, whence the ancient custom of 

 planting it in burial-grounds. Recognised as exotic by Pliny, 

 it had however already been introduced into Italy before the 

 time of Cato, who was born in the year 232 b,c. The two 

 remarkable varieties now known, with upright and with spreading 

 branches, were equally distinguished by Pliny. 



The Horse Chesnnt (iEsculus hippocastanum), a native of the 

 mountains of Central Asia, was unknown to the ancients. It was 

 first introduced into Constantinople in 1540, whence Qualcebeno, 

 physician to the German Embassy, sent a branch with leaves and 

 fruit to Matthioli in 1557, and it was probably raised at 

 Florence at about that time, for in 1569 Jean Bauhin saw a tree 

 of it about the size of a mulberry in the garden of the Grand 

 Duke Cosmo I. Clusius planted one at Vienna in 1576, and 

 Bachelier introduced it into France from Constantinople in 1015. 

 Two from the same source were planted soon after 15 90 at the 

 entrance of the botanic garden at Pisa and attained an immense 

 size. One was destroyed in a storm in 1800, the other still remains. 



The Cherry Laurel, or common laurel of our gardens (Prunus 

 laurocerasus), a native of the Asiatic coast of the Black Sea, is 

 frequent in Italian gardens of comparatively mild climate, for, 

 like many evergreens, it seems moi-e impatient of severe frost 

 there than with us. Unknown to the ancients, it was first 

 brought from Trebizonde to Constantinople about the year 1540, 

 and thence sent by the Austrian Ambassador, David Ugnard, to 

 Clusius at Vienna in the year 1576. From the individuals there 

 raised, it has since spread over the rest of Europe. In Tuscany 

 it was within a very few years of that time procured by Cesalpiii, 

 then Professor at Pisa, from the garden of Genoa. 



This cherry laurel must not be confounded with the real 

 classical laurel, our bay-tree (Laurus nobilis), which is indigenous 

 to Italy and other parts of Southern Europe. 



The Weepiiui Willow (Salix babylonica), a native of Western 

 Asia, is generally supposed to be the willow of the Euphrates, 

 upon which, as we read in the Bible (Ps. cxxxvii.), the Jewish 

 sinsers hung their musical instruments. It is not however 

 mentioned by any ancient Greek or Roman writers, nor yet by 

 the Italians of the middle ages, and, common as it now is all 

 over Europe, it does not appear in any catalogue of Italian 

 gardens until that compiled by Micheli, in 1715, of the 

 botanical gardens of Florence. It is however clearly represented 



